The present disclosure relates generally to medical devices, and more particularly to methods of analyzing physiological parameters to determine unique physiological biometric characteristics of a patient and utilizing these biometric characteristics to identify the patient.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In the field of medicine, doctors often desire to monitor certain physiological characteristics of their patients. Accordingly, a wide variety of devices have been developed for monitoring many such physiological characteristics. Such devices provide doctors and other healthcare personnel with the information they need to provide the best possible healthcare for their patients. As a result, such monitoring devices have become an indispensable part of modern medicine.
One technique for monitoring certain physiological characteristics of a patient is commonly referred to as pulse oximetry, and the devices built based upon pulse oximetry techniques are commonly referred to as pulse oximeters. Pulse oximetry may be used to measure various blood flow characteristics, such as the blood-oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in arterial blood, the volume of individual blood pulsations supplying the tissue, and/or the rate of blood pulsations corresponding to each heartbeat of a patient. In fact, the “pulse” in pulse oximetry refers to the time varying amount of arterial blood in the tissue during each cardiac cycle.
Pulse oximeters typically utilize a non-invasive sensor that transmits light through a patient's tissue and that photoelectrically detects the absorption of the transmitted light in such tissue. Such techniques, however, may not fully leverage the information that may be acquired. In particular, while analyses based on light absorption may provide useful measurements, other information that is not based on absorption of light in the tissue may be uncollected and unused, thereby depriving a caregiver of potentially useful information.
Patient sensors may communicate with a patient monitor using a communication cable. For example, a patient sensor may use such a communication cable to send a signal, corresponding to a measurement performed by the sensor, to the patient monitor for processing. However, the use of communication cables may limit the range of applications available, as the cables may become prohibitively expensive at long distances as well as limit a patient's range of motion by physically tethering the patient to a monitoring device. As such, it may be desirable to monitor the physiological parameters of a patient with wireless sensors. Indeed, certain monitors, such as pulse oximetry monitors, may be equipped with features (e.g., wireless communication technologies) that enable a patient to freely move about while remote monitoring is being performed.
Wireless sensors are typically paired with a patient monitor to ensure that the patient monitor is displaying physiological information from the intended source. This may be achieved by manually entering patient related information into the patient monitor when applying the wireless sensor to the patient. However, when wireless sensors are switched from one patient to another, the patient related information within the patient monitor might not be updated for the new patient. In such situations, the patient monitor and/or the wireless sensor may be improperly associated with the previous patient. As such, there is often a need for the wireless sensor and/or the patient monitor to recognize the incorrect association of the wireless sensor and/or patient monitor with the patient. Accordingly, it may be desirable for the wireless sensor and/or patient monitor to recognize and/or identify the patient to confirm that the monitor is associated with the correct patient.